France can take encouragement from Germany’s mauling of Brazil

France boss Didier Deschamps’ team only lost to Germany by a single goal (Picture: Reuters)

The France national team arrived back home at the weekend, so they will have watched Tuesday’s semi-final between Brazil and Germany from their respective homes across Europe. With most of the players enjoying a break before going to join their clubs for the new season, they must have all sat there with a sense of ‘what if?’

Watching the team that beat you 1-0 days before, rip apart the host nation 7-1 must have given the French side somewhat of a sense of pride. Brazil conceded after 11 minutes, two minutes before Mats Hummels opened the scoring against the French, but there was no collapse.

It’s difficult to look back with a sense of what could have been, but a little more enterprise from Didier Deschamps side, an increased tempo and a bit more risk and that could have been Les Bleus in Belo Horizonte.

One problem that France might not want to think about just yet…How on earth do you beat this German side?

Now there is nothing to say that Brazil would have collapsed in the same way against Deschamps side. However, the French should take solace in the fact that they didn’t collapse, and didn’t succumb to the Germans the same way that Luiz Filipe Scolari’s team did.

France now has the problem of not playing a competitive game until they open the 2016 European Championships in their own backyard.

Blaise Matuidi and Paul Pogba – an important part of France’s future (Picture: AFP/Getty Images)

They will take encouragement from the way they played in Brazil and they can build upon this success. Although the target will be to win the trophy on home soil, the real target will be to go one stage further and reach the semi-finals.

Most importantly, this is the start of France building a united team, a squad that trusts each other and can continue the attitude forward, regardless of who is in the squad or who is in charge.

Only four players from the 2010 World Cup squad made it to Brazil, only nine from Laurent Blanc’s Euro 2012 squad made it to South America. Now, Deschamps has to use the current players to create something special.

The same way that Germany started their system back in 2006 with Jurgen Klinsmann and continued under Low. This is not something that is built overnight, it’s a long process and Deschamps has the pieces in place to start something that could build towards France being genuine contenders in four, eight, 12 years’ time.

One problem that France might not want to think about just yet…How on earth do you beat this German side?